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in the hope of the glory of God: to have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us: and the Spir t itself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God?

I beseech you, sir, by the mercies of God, to consider deeply and impartially, whether the true reason of your never pressing this upon me, was not this,-That you had it not yourself? Whether that man of God was not in the right, who gave this account of a late interview he had with you? "I began speaking to him of faith in Christ: he was silent. Then he began to speak of mystical matters. I spake to him of faith in Christ again : he was silent. Then he began to speak of mystical matters again. I saw his state at once." And a very dangerous one, in his judgment, who I know to have the Spirit of God.

Once more, sir, let me beg you to consider, whether your extreme roughness, and morose and sour behaviour, at least on many occasions, can possibly be the fruit of a living faith in Christ? If not, may the God of peace and love fill up what is yet wanting in you. I am, Rev. Sir, your humble servant, JOHN WESLEY.

LETTER II. TO THE REV. WM. LAW.

REV. SIK,

May 30, 1738. I SINCERELY thank you for a favour I did not expect, and presume to trouble you once more.

How I have preached all my life; how qualified or unqualified I was to correct a translation of Kempis, and to translate a preface to it. Whether I have now, or how long I have had living faith. Whether Peter Bohler spoke truth in what he said, when two others were present besides me, are circumstances on which the main question does not turn; which is this, and no other: "Whether you ever advised me, or directed me to books, that did advise me to seek first a living faith in the blood of Christ, and that thereby alone I could be justified." You appeal to three facts to prove that you did. 1st, That you put into my hands Theologia Germanica. 2d, That you published an Answer to "The Plain Account of the Sacrament." And, 3d, That you are governed through all that you have written and done by these two fundamental maxims of our Lord, "Without me ye can do nothing: and, If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me."

The facts I allow, but not the consequence. In Theologia Germanica, I remember something of Christ our pattern, but nothing express of Christ our atonement. The Answer to the Plain Account of the Sacrament, I believe to be an excellent book, but not so as to affect the main question. Those two maxims may imply, but do not express the thing itself, He is our propitiation through faith in his blood.

But how are you chargeable with my not having had this faith? If you intimate that you discerned my spirit, then you are chargeable

thus: 1. You did not tell me plainly I had it not. 2. You never once advised me to seek or to pray for it. 3. Your advice to me was only proper for such as had faith already. Advices which led me further from it, the closer I adhered to them. 4. You recommended books to me which had no tendency to this faith, but a di rect one to destroy good works. However "Let the fault be divided (you say) between me and Kempis." No: if I understood Kempis wrong, it was your part, who discerned my spirit, and saw my mistake, to have explained him, and to have set me right. I ask pardon, Sir, if I have said any thing inconsistent with the obligations I owe you, and the respect I bear to your character. I am, Rev. Sir, your most obedient Servant,

J. WESLEY.

TO MR. FLETCHER.

DEAR SIR,

Birmingham, March 20, 1768. I WAS told yesterday, that you are sick of the conversation even of them who profess religion, that you find it quite unprofitable, if not hurtful, to converse with them, three or four hours together, and are sometimes almost determined to shut yourself up, as the less evil of the two. I do not wonder at it at all. Especially considering with whom you have chiefly conversed for some time past, namely, the hearers of Mr. **** and Mr. ****. The conversing with them I have rarely found to be profitable to my soul. Rather it has damped my desires, and has cooled my resolutions, and I have commonly left them with a dry, dissipated spirit.

And how can you expect it to be otherwise? For do we not naturally catch their spirit with whom we converse? And what spirit can we expect them to be of, considering the preaching they sit under. Some happy exceptions, I allow. But, in general, do men gather grapes of thorns? Do they gather the necessity of inward and outward self-devotion, of constant, universal self-denial, or of the patience of hope, or the labour of love, from the doctrine they hear? Do they gather from that amorous way of praying to Christ, er that luscious way of preaching his righteousness, any real holiness? I never found it so. On the contrary, I have found that even the precious doctrine of Salvation by Faith, has need to be guarded with the greatest care, or those who hear it will slight both inward and outward holiness.

I will go a step further. I seldom find it profitable to converse with any who are not athirst for full salvation; and who are not big with earnest expectation of receiving it every moment. Now you find none of these among those we are speaking of; but many on the contrary, who are in various ways, directly or indirectly, opposing this blessed work of God. The work I mean, which God is carry ing on throughout this kingdom, by unlearned and plain men.

You have, for some time, conversed a good deal with the genteel Methodists. Now it matters not a straw what doctrine they hear. Whether they frequent the Lock, or West-street, if they are as salt which has lost its savour. If they are conformed to the maxims, the spirit, the fashions, and customs of the world. Certainly then, if you converse much with such persons, you will return less a man than you were before. But were either the one or the other of ever so excellent a spirit, you conversed with them too long. One had need be an angel, not a man, to converse three or four hours at once, to any good purpose. In the latter part of such a conversation, we shall be in great danger of losing all the profit we had gained before.

But have you not a remedy for all this in your hands? In order to converse profitably, may you not select a few persons who stand in awe of him they love; persons who are vigorously working out their salvation: who are athirst for full redemption, and every moment expecting it, if not already enjoying it?

Though it is true, these will generally be poor and mean, seldom possessed of either riches or learning, unless there be now and then one of higher rank: if you converse with such as these, humbly and simply, an hour at a time, with earnest prayer for a blessing, you will not complain of the unprofitableness of conversation, or find any need of turning hermit. Do you not observe, that all the laypreachers who are engaged with me, are maintainers of General Redemption? And it is undeniable that they are instrumental in saving souls. God is with them, and he works by them, and has done so for near these thirty years. Therefore, the opposing them is neither better nor worse than fighting against God. I am, your ever affectionate Brother,

JOHN WESLEY.

TO MR. KNOX.

you

DEAR SIR,

Sligo, May 30, 1765. PROBABLY this will be the last trouble of the kind which you will receive from me. If you receive it in the same spirit wherein it is written, I shall be glad. If not, my reward is with the Most High. I did not choose it should be delivered till I was gone, lest should think I wanted something from you. By the blessing of God, I want nothing, only that you should be happy in time and in eternity. Still I cannot but remember, the clear light you had with regard to the nature of real, scriptural Christianity. You saw what heart religion meant, and the gate of it, justification. You had earnest desires to be a partaker of the whole gospel-blessing and you discovered the sincerity of those desires, by the steps you took in your family. So that in every thing you were hastening to be, not almost, but altogether a Christian.

Where is that light now? Do you now see that true religion is

"But

not a negative, or an external thing. But the life of God in the soul The image of God stamped upon the heart? Do you now see, that in order to this, we are justified freely, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus? Where are the desires after this, which you once felt; the hungering and thirsting after righteousness? And where are the outward marks of a soul groaning after God, and refusing to be comforted with any thing less than his love? Will you say, "But if I had gone on in that way, I should have lost my friends and my reputation?" This is partly true. You would have lost most of those friends who neither love nor fear God. Happy loss! These are the men who do you more hurt than all the world besides. These are the men whom, if ever you would be a real Christian, you must avoid as you would avoid hell-fire. then they will censure me." So they will. They will say you are a fool, a madman, and what not. But what are you the worse for this? Why, the Spirit of glory and of Christ shall rest upon you. "But it will hurt me in my business." Suppose it should, the favour of God would make large amends. But very probably it would not. For the winds and the seas are in God's hands, as well as the hearts of men. "But it is inconsistent with my duty to the Church." Can a man of understanding talk so, and talk so in earnest ? Is it not rather a copy of his countenance? Indeed if you mean- "Inconsistent with my pleasing this or that clergyman,"-I allow it. But let them be pleased or displeased, please thou God. But are these clergymen the Church? Unless they are holy men, earnestly loving and serving God, they are not even members of the Church; they are no part of it. And unless they preach the doctrines of the Church, contained in her Articles and Liturgy, they are no true ministers of the Church, but are eating her bread and tearing out her bowels!

“But you will not leave the Church." You never will by my advice: I advise just the contrary: I advise you to lose no opportunity of attending the service of the Church, and receiving the Lord's Supper, and of showing your regard for all her appointments. I advise, steadily to adhere to her doctrine in every branch of it. Particularly with regard to the two fundamental points, Justification by Faith, and Holiness. But above all, I cannot but earnestly entreat you, not to rest till you experience what she teaches. Till (to sum up all in one word) God cleanses the thoughts of your heart by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, that you may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his holy name. Unless this be done, what will it profit you to increase your fortune, to preserve the fairest reputation, and to gain the favour of the most learned, the most ingenious, and the most honourable clergymen in the kingdom? What will it profit a man to gain all these, and to lose his own soul?

I know that to God all things are possible: therefore it is possible you may take this kindly. If so, I shall hope to receive a line from you. If not, let it be forgotten till we meet at the judgment seat of Christ. I am, dear Sir, your affectionate Servant,

JOHN WESLEY.

TO MISS BISHOP.

MY DEAR SISTER, Feb. 7, 1778. IT is no great matter, whether those doubts arose in your mind by conversing with Mr. H. by reading Mr. Law's later works, or by your own reasoning. But, doubtless, what you mention, is a point of the last importance, and deserves our most serious consideration. The rather, because the strange account given of it by some, has induced others to deny, The doctrine of Atonement: although this is the distinguishing point between Deism and Christianity. "The morality of the Bible (said Lord Huntingdon to me) I admire: but the doctrine of Atonement, I cannot comprehend." Here, then, we divide. Give up the Atonement, and we are all agreed.

This point, therefore, deserves to be largely considered: but that my time will not permit. And it is the less needful, because I have done it already in my letter to Mr. Law; to which I beg you will give a serious reading, whether you have read it before or not. [See Volume Ninth, p. 118.] But it is true, I can no more comprehend it than his Lordship: perhaps I might say, than the angels of God; the highest created understanding. If we attempt to expatiate in this field, we "shall find no end, in wandering mazes lost!" But the question is, (the only question with me; I regard nothing else ;) What saith the Scripture? It says, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." "That he made him, who knew no sin, to be a sin-offering for us." It says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." It says, "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the Atonement for our sins."

But it is certain, had God never been angry, he could never have been reconciled. So that in affirming this, Mr. Law strikes at the very root of the Atonement, and finds a shorter method of converting Deists, than Mr. Lesley's! Although, therefore, I do not term God, as Mr. Law supposes, "a wrathful being," which conveys a wrong idea; yet I firmly believe he was angry with all mankind, and that he was reconciled to them by the death of his Son. And I know he was angry with me, till I believed in the Son of his love: and yet this is no impeachment to his mercy. But he is just, as well

as merciful.

Undoubtedly, as long as the world stands, there will be a thousand objections to this scriptural doctrine. For still the preaching of Christ crucified, will be foolishness to the wise men of the world. However, let us hold it fast in our heart, as well as in our understanding; and we shall find by happy experience, that this is to us the wisdom of God, and the power of God.

I am, your affectionate Friend and Brother,
JOHN WESLEY.

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